Kiki Smith, Deborah Gans: Eldridge Street Redesign

The Eldridge Street Synagogue (Photo: Michael Nagle for The New York Times )

The Museum at Eldridge Street has commissioned the artist Kiki Smith and the architect Deborah Gans to create a new east window for its 1887 synagogue, a National Historic Landmark on Manhattan’s Lower East Side.

“We were interested to make a piece that integrated into the building but would not mimic the structure,” Ms. Smith said in an interview.

The synagogue reopened in 2007 after a 20-year restoration, but there were no available records of the original window. “We decided not to try to recreate something when we did not know what that something really looked like,” said Bonnie Dimun, executive director of the museum.

Instead, Ms. Smith and Ms. Gans will reimagine the window, due to be completed by late spring 2010. While the design has yet to be released, Ms. Smith said it would feature the Star of David at the center “in a field of blue five-pointed stars.”